The Cancun upgrade is set to take place in less than 24 hours, and upon successful implementation, it will effectively reduce gas fees on Layer 2. So, how can we use existing data platforms to identify potential investment opportunities as soon as they arise?

We can visit the Layer 2 charts section on Soso Value, where we can initially see the basic information of the mainstream Layer 2s, including TVL, number of DeFi protocols on the chain, quantity of stablecoins, and the single-day trading volume of the DEXs on the chain. From this chart, we can see that currently, Arbitrum, Optimism, Blast, Base, and Manta are the top five Layer 2s in terms of TVL, and everyone should pay close attention to the data changes on these chains.

At the same time, we can select specific chains in the options area to compare chain-on-chain transfer costs (the most concerned data, and also the data most affected by the Cancun upgrade) and DEX trading volumes (as gas fees decrease, trading volumes may show a significant negative correlation growth).

Taking Arbitrum, Optimism, and Ethereum as examples, when we compare these three chains, we can clearly see the trends of these indicators in different dimensions. After the Cancun upgrade, the transfer fees on Layer 2 may see a significant decrease.

At the same time, many friends might be confused when using different platforms: Why is there such a big difference in the TVL of the same Layer 2 chain reported on L2Beat and DeFiLlama?

First, we must clearly define the following:

1. L2Beat's TVL definition: The sum of all tokens that have been canonically bridged, externally bridged, and natively minted, converted to USD.

2. DeFiLlama's definition/calculation method for a chain's TVL: The total sum of the TVL of all DeFi protocols on that chain.

This explains why, for the same chain, we may observe that the TVL data from L2 Beat is significantly higher than that from DeFiLlama (as not all funds on the chain may flow into DeFi protocols).

Therefore, we can calculate the activity level of DeFi interactions on Layer 2 blockchains by using the ratio of DeFiLlama TVL to L2Beat TVL.

It can be observed that users on the Base chain are more willing to lock their funds in DeFi protocols, while for Metis, it's quite the opposite.